Yellowknife (Mar 02/05) - When the territorial government's contract guru speaks, business people should listen.

Bonita Nowell holds one of the top jobs with the Government of the Northwest Territories as the manager of procurement policy.

Bonita Nowell, manager of the Government of the Northwest Territories' procurement policy.

Nowell provided a noon-hour presentation to the Yellowknife Business and Professional Women's Association in City Hall's lower boardroom on Monday and later consented to a hurried interview, while running late for an important appointment.

Nowell's ancestry dates back to the early 1800's and the Hudson Bay Company era, where her family began a history acting as interpreters, trappers, voyageurs, fur buyers and guides.

"I continued on with the family legacy," she says.

While procurement and trade runs in the family tree, Nowell comes by her professional standing honestly.

For 10 years she studied while working to attain her designation as a certified professional purchaser from the Professional Management Association of Canada. She is one of only a handful of people in the territory who hold the designation.

Between 1999 and 2003, Nowell led a review team participating in a number of procurement-related reviews, all of which contributed to the system available today.

Open and transparent government is a lot of what Nowell is all about. Last year was the first time there was an open accounting of all contracts provided by the territorial government valued over $5,000, she says.

The luncheon presentation is just one of a myriad of meetings Nowell has held when attempting to teach the business community how to land that all-important government contract. During the meeting, she reveals that the MERX website for government contracts is not being used as much as it used to be.

The new website that is becoming predominant for government contracts department is the Alberta Purchasing Connection.

"Purchasing connection is becoming the central hosting site for a majority of government contracts," she says.

Getting government contracts has been made much easier through the territorial government's website.

Practically every contract put out by the territorial government is on this site, with contract winners being highlighted in bold type.

Many of the women at the meeting ask about contracts valued under $5,000 as well as federal contracts worth under $25,000, which are not reported.

These smaller contracts may never be listed on either federal, provincial or territorial websites, she later reveals. During the meeting, Nowell advised the best rule of thumb for landing these smaller contracts is to get to know the contracting authority in every government department that a contractor wishes to offer their services toward.

"The best advertising is word of mouth," she says.

Nowell also advises any proposal writer to pick up a copy of Michael Asner's The Request For Proposals Handbook. Another good trick to landing government contracts is to follow the rules in proposal writing.

All the rules associated with landing government contracts are stated on the territorial government's website.

At 1:10 p.m., all the women have gone their separate ways, back to the companies and government departments they work for. Nowell is scrambling to package up her digital projector. A cabinet minister is waiting back at her office.

Even after 23 years on the job, Nowell reveals she still loves it.

"I love what I do because of the people. People make all the difference."